by Eden Beck
I can’t follow her. I still haven’t spotted Dana among those streaming from the back rooms. I can’t even see in past the thick smoke and choking chemical smell.
“Dana!” I call out, and suddenly Astor is at my side, gripping my arm.
“You have to get out of here,” he says, choking through the smoke, but I shake my head.
“Not without Dana.”
“Where …” he trails off, his eyes lifting to peer into the smoke-filled rooms. He dashes in, his shirt pulled up over his nose. For a long, agonizing moment—I’m sure I’ve lost them both. Wills and Blair are pushing their way through the crowd, but they don’t quite reach us until Astor is fully engulfed and invisible in the smoke. I clutch at them for support, knowing I should be running away with everyone else—but unable to leave them behind.
Then Astor reappears, his body covered in soot—with a limp body held in his arms.
I don’t have time to see if she’s still breathing when another loud explosion wracks the cellars, this time followed by a massive burst of flames. They engulf the whole back wall around the entrance, where everyone else is trying to escape. They only last a minute, a brilliant display of color in every shade. Beautiful, bright, and deadly.
The entire place shakes from the ground up. The lights flicker and go off, dust and debris spray throughout the area, and I am surrounded by screams and crying as people rush about in the darkness. I keep a tight hold of Blair and Wills, and they won’t let go of me, either.
It’s pitch black for a full minute before the lights flicker back on. I can see the orange and yellow flames lighting up the next mad stampede for the door. But me, I’m frozen.
All around us on the floor are bodies. Some of them are awake and crying for help, and some of them, it is quite clear, are dead. Astor was knocked off his feet in the explosion, but aside from a bit of soot on his face, he looks fine.
Eli’s friend, on the other hand, is not so much. He lies motionless on the floor, one arm stretched out as if reaching for me in his final moments. His desperation is matched only by mine as I search for Dana in the wreckage. She was in Astor’s arms before the explosion, but now she’s nowhere to be found.
I cry out for Dana again, lurching closer to the fire with only Blair and Wills holding me back from plunging through it to search for her. I can barely see through the dust and smoke. Eli still stands at my side, his face a mask of shock and horror.
“Teddy,” he says, quietly. I don’t know how I hear him through all the commotion, but I do.
“What?” I snap, my eyes searching the flames furiously for my missing friend. “What could you have to say that could possibly be so important right now?”
He’s staring down at the ground. Slowly, ever so slowly, he raises a hand to point at something behind me.
“I found her.”
I whirl around and there she is, true to his word … lying face down in a pool of blood.
A Note From The Author
Thank you for reading Dirty Fraud, Book Two in the Holy Hawthorne Trinity series. Book Three will be available on Amazon in early August…if not sooner!
If you enjoyed Dirty Fraud, please consider leaving a review on Amazon!
If you are experiencing bullying in your life, please reach out for help:
https://www.stompoutbullying.org
https://www.stopbullying.gov
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (1-800-273-8255)
Xoxo,
Eden
